22
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSlant MagazineKenji FujishimaIt's hardly a desecration of Pascal Laugier's 2008 French horror film of the same name, but that assumes the original is a canonical text.
- 50The A.V. ClubAlex McCownThe A.V. ClubAlex McCownUnfortunately, in goosing the momentum, the creators of the film have lost the soul of what was essential to this horrific tale
- 40The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckDeviating from the original in some key respects, this version of Martyrs doesn't make much of a case for its inspiration, but it may attract those hardcore horror fans averse to reading subtitles.
- 30Village VoiceChuck WilsonVillage VoiceChuck WilsonThe co-directing brothers Goetz prove adept at building escape-the-bad-guy action sequences, but they continually run up against the story's Marquis-de-Sade underpinnings.
- 25The PlaylistOktay Ege KozakThe PlaylistOktay Ege KozakMartyrs is only eighty minutes long, sans credits, yet still it manages to cram four bad horror films into its meager runtime.
- 25New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithA self-serving remark on the part of the filmmakers, who place only the tiniest fig leaf of a story on a panoramic canvas of the gory, gross and repellent.
- 25RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyBoth the French and U.S. iterations of Martyrs are transparently voyeuristic cheaply ginned-up Guignol peep shows with intellectual pretensions.
- 10Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThe movie feels like a thin excuse to show image after image of women being abused. This Martyrs has the bones of its predecessor, but it's been bled dry.
- 10TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleDepending on what you need from horror like this – shock followed by relief, or a brutalization fix – Martyrs is bait-and-switch, or it’s a drawn-out tease that makes good. Either way, it’s a sop to vile tastes.
- 0The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisShatteringly stupid and repulsively misogynistic, Martyrs mashes revenge, torture and the supernatural into one solid, quasi-religious lump.